Three Words: Spain
by September Samstar
Summary: Ever want to read a story just for the fluff? Well, here you go, a collection of one-shot fluffy stories between Spain and the love of his life, Faith Olvera. Each chapter revolves around three words mentioned at the beginning of very chapter with Spanish translations. New: Chpt 6-Their first "date"
1. Household Chores

**Introduction (Please Read!):**

**Just a collection of one-shot fluff stories written about the relationships between an OC and Spain, not in chronological order. Each story revolves around three Spanish words that do not necessarily relate to each other. This is a sample of what one looks like. Please send me three words with a review, in Spanish or English, and I will try my best to create a story using those three words as the focus. No curse or sex words please, those suggestions will be ignored; the highest the rating will be is T. **

**Note: Querida means dear and will be an unrelated word in a lot of chapters **

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><p>La ropa: The clothes<p>

El agotamiento: The exhaustion

Los ojos: The eyes

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><p>At the fringes of her consciousness, Faith Carriedo could hear the sound of water splattering down somewhere, and she slowly tried to pull herself out of her trance-like state. She was spread out on the rug at the floor of the flat she shared with her husband, Antonio, waiting for him to come out of the shower, and was absolutely exhausted. After a long day of working a double shift at the Carriedo Restaurante, her feet were ready to fall off, and her eyes no longer had the will to stay open. But just because the day was over didn't mean that the work was. In the Carriedo household, Tuesdays equaled wash days.<p>

Washing was a time-consuming chore that took up more energy than Faith thought she had. In Spain, there were no dryers, just a massive indoor clothesline that one had to rig up every time they did wash. And having company over on Wednesday was next to impossible, unless you didn't mind them seeing your underwear as it slowly dried.

Finally the water shut off for good, signalling that Antonio was done in the shower. He was probably just as tired as she was, Faith thought. After all, he did get to the restaurant even earlier than she did around 10 in the morning to prepare for the lunch crowd, and not coming home until the place was closed at midnight with her. The creak of the old bathroom door alerted Faith to the fact that he was out of the bathroom. With a sigh, she quickly got up, the only way she figured she would ever leave her not-so-comfortable resting spot, and headed back. Unfortunately, this speedy wake-up meant that she was greeted with the sight of her husband's naked butt as he dashed back to the bedroom.

Nothing she hadn't seen before, they were married after all, but still, it was an unexpected sight. She couldn't help the strangled squeal that sprung out of her mouth. Antonio just laughed.

"Toni!"

"Querida, there aren't any clean towels!"

"Ugh, don't remind me!"

"What's wrong?"

"It's Tuesday Toni."

"Wait it's Tuesday! Oh yeah, we got in a shipment of fresh fruit at the restaurant today," he said while yawning loudly. Faith couldn't resist rolling her eyes to the ceiling as she gathered up the dirty clothes bag. Sometimes her husband could be so clueless.

"Yes, and Tuesday is wash day."

"Oh. Do you want some help?"

Faith finished gathering up the laundry and turned to head out the bathroom door. "I don't think there-," she said, before smacking right into Antonio's chest. He had braced himself up against the doorway, his hands over his head leaning against the top of the frame, this time fully clothed. However, nothing could hide the contours of his arms, muscular from lifting heavy bags of food for the restaurant.

"Ow."

"Sorry. C'mon, let me help." Faith shrugged and handed him the bag, or at least tried to. His arms were still pushing up on the top of the door jam, and the bag ended up sandwiched in between them as Antonio leaned in toward his wife. Faith tried to stifle a yawn, her eyes closing and opening quickly, as she raised her eyebrows in appreciation.

"Bet we can't make it to the laundry room without using our hands," Antonio dared with a smirk, the corners of his eyes crinkling up. He released his hands from the top of the door and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. Faith stopped another yawn as she smiled and she wrapped her arms around Antonio's waist, and leaned her face against the bag and his chest, closing her eyes. It was like a turtle shell, sheltered from the cold apartment and dark enough to fall asleep in. The two walked slowly back to the laundry closet.

"Ok we're here Faith."

"Five more minutes," she mumbled.

"When we're done you can sleep all you want. Faith Carriedo just has the late shift tomorrow, and only the late shift."

"Really?" Faith said, as she looked up at Antonio, eyes wide. There it was, that smile that she loved staring down at her.

"Yeah, well, I just happen to know the person who owns the restaurant quite well, and he was working on the scheduling while I was cleaning up and I decided to put in a good word for Faith." He shrugged and separated himself from their warm embrace, placing the laundry bag down as he went to grab the clothesline. "Don't tell her," he whispered over his shoulder, "but I totally have a crush on her."

"Oh really," Faith said, playing along, as she began loading the clothes and the detergent into the washer. "A crush on Faith?"

"Yep. There is something about her. I don't know what it is, but I just..." he sighed dramatically as he worked on the apparatus. "I think I'm in love!"

"You need to call Francis. You know I'm no good at this kind of advice." The whites were finally all in the machine. Now only a 40 minute wait until they were done...and then it was time to do the color load.

"I know what I would do right now, if she were right here," he pondered, as he walked away from the finished spider web and towards his wife. Faith felt his arms spinning her around to face him, before lifting her up onto the top of the washing machine, as her stomach dropped. She loved her husband, she really did, she did not have any energy for any shenanigans tonight. Antonio's voice dropped as he whispered in her ear, "I'd kiss her like this." Gently he leaned back a bit, and kissed her at the corners of her eyes. He leaned back and looked into her eyes. "She looks a little tired."

Faith exhaled, feeling tears prick the corner of her eyes. She gave a big smile to her husband, relief seeping through. "Thank you Antonio" she whispered. His eyes crinkled up and he let her down off the washer.

The two dozed against the washer until the wash is done, waking up to of course hang up the whites and to load in the colors, and then when the colors were done, they too were hung up. When all was done they went back to the bedroom, turning out the lights as they went, hand in hand. Snuggling together, the two shared one last tired smile, one last crinkle of the eyes, before closing them and surrendering to sleep.

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><p><strong>AN: Well I'm back to writing Fanfiction with another series. This time I have some more parameters, so hopefully it will turn out better than the last one.**

**Remember, send in a review with your words so that this story doesn't get in trouble! Positive, negative, I really don't care, just your opinion and some new inspiration.**

**Happy 2015 everyone! Te Amo Amigos de internet!**


	2. First Meeting You

El Jabón-the soap

El Cielo-the sky/heaven

La Electricidad-the electricity

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><p>Antonio had just started his shower when the electricity went out. He knew he had two options. He could stop his shower now and rinse off while the water was still hot, or he could keep going and hopefully finish before the water turned cold. Antonio, ever the optimist, chose to keep going.<p>

Unfortunately, that was not the right choice.

Once he finally got all the soap suds on his body and went to rinse himself off, the water spat back at him freezing cold ice shards.

"Aww crap," he hissed, as he quickly hopped out of the shower. Relentless optimism or not, he was not getting back into there. It was always funny how even in the relentless heat of the summer, the water could still be shockingly cold. So he wiped the soap off of himself as best as he could with his towel and dressed in boxers, black sweats and a white t-shirt and crashed on his couch. It was his day off, and he did technically have plans for the day; he was supposed to catch up on the cleaning in his apartment, but of course those plans were now impossible without the vacuum and hot water. However, after a while, it soon became clear that without the fans that he usually had going in the summer time, the air in the flat was stale and stifling. Opening a window was a possibility, but then he would have to deal with the bugs that would inevitably come into the flat and remain for weeks afterwards.

The only viable option would be to go outside and seek out some place that might have electricity, or at the very least, maybe get the occasional breeze, with the addition of just having something to actually do. Again, Antonio was ever the optimist. So he hopped up and grabbed his keys, locking the door behind him. His flat, situated in the downtown sector of the city, was bordered by several businesses. Picking a random direction, he ambled down his street, peeking inside different businesses to see if there was any activity to indicate the power might still be on. The sky above was a bright, brilliant blue, not a cloud to cover up the bright sun bearing down on his shoulders.

An hour later, even Antonio's relentless optimism was beginning to fail him. None of the places that he passed looked to have electricity, except for one or two grocery stores with back-up generators, where he popped in to buy some tomatoes with the reasoning that he could never have too many. Plus they would make a great meal on days when he didn't feel like cooking. He didn't stay for too long though, the call of adventure beckoned him forward. After all, he had been stuck either in the restaurant, or in his flat, trying to keep up with the mess that he made. With the exceptions of the few meet-ups he could arrange with his college buddies, whenever one or both of them were in town, he really hadn't been out

And now he is beginning to regret it.

Sitting down at a bus stop, the glass walls doing nothing to distort the sky's view of the sweltering Antonio, the man takes a tomato out of his bag and absentmindedly started munching on it. He wasn't terribly tired, after all, he was used to being on his feet in the restaurant. But it was time to take a break, figure out how much time had passed and what to do next.

While he was thinking, he blankly stared at the cars around him. Not very many pedestrians were out. He watched a man walk across the length of the other side of the street, only to turn the corner and to be replaced by a girl in a short-sleeved shirt and jean short going in the opposite direction. She traced the steps of the man before her until the crosswalk, where she began walking in the direction of the bus stop. Antonio noticed her with muted interest, but perked up a little bit when she came to sit next to him.

"Good morning," he said around a bite full of tomato. She looked at him and pulled the ear buds out of her head.

"Sorry, what did you say." Spain gave a flustered smile, internally kicking himself.

"Uh, just good morning." She took in his flustered state, giving a small smile.

"Good morning." She keeps her ear buds out, but doesn't say anything. The silence gets to them both, making them feel awkward, so Antonio finished off his tomato to give him something to do. The girl, missing his actions as she tried not to stare too much turned back to him and quickly said, "You know you have soap in your hair right?"

Poor Antonio, with his mouth full of tomato, reached up to his hair with his free hand and while combing his hand through, came out with a sticky mess of soap, bubbles included. The soap had practically baked into his hair due to the light of the sun high over his head. His face flushed to the same shade of red as his tomatoes.

"Ahh no..." he trailed off bashfully. Quickly he tried to comb it out, with little success. He struggled for a minute before she finally spoke again.

"Do you want some help? I mean, you don't have to, but it just looks like it's a hard thing to fix yourself."

"Sí por favor." He bent down a little bit so that she could get a better reach of his soft hair. With some fumbling, she managed to comb out the soap left in his hair. What she didn't know was that every tug of the hair was like a shot of electricity up his spine.

"There, I think it's all out."

"Gracias señorita..."

"Faith."

"Encantado Faith. Me llamo Antonio." He quickly stuck out his tan hand, and she did the same. They quickly shook. Antonio could see the bus pulling up to the light.

"Are you getting on the bus?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, you?" The man shook his head, the bus was going in the opposite direction of the house, and if the stores across the street were any indication, the power was back on. So when the bus came to the stop, after exchanging farewells, she boarded the bus and he began walking back. But Antonio couldn't shake the feeling that this was the start of something, what he didn't exactly know. He turned around to watch the bus go, to get have it's trailing sight for his final memory of her.

But as he turned around, the unexpected sight he beheld in the back window of the bus was her face, with a farewell wave. Antonio raised a hand in return and the bus disappeared around the corner.

Then he too turned around and headed home, tomatoes in tow. Just a nice stranger at a bus bench willing to help out his hopeless case. Nothing more.

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><p>Nos conocemos cuando tuve jabón en el pelo.-We met when I had soap in my hair.<p>

Había electricidad cuando me toques.- There was electricity when you touched me.

Algún día, voy a tener tu como mi cielo.- Some day I will have you as my sky.

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><p><strong>AN: Here's chapter 2! Let me know your thoughts!**

**Te Amo Amigos de Internet!**


	3. Caring for Something Together

Alquilar-to rent

Saltar-to jump

La Foto-the photo

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><p>"Antonio!" Faith called as she unlocked the door to get into his flat.<p>

"Hey querida!" Faith walked over to where her boyfriend was sitting at his desk and hugged him from behind.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Paying rent. I'm almost done, then we can go."

"Ok." Faith picked up a duster cloth and began to dust the flat as Antonio finished transferring his money on the computer. Her boyfriend was a bit messy, but at the same time he knew where everything was, and that was all that mattered to Faith. She wasn't one become OCD when things were out of place, the state of her own flat speaking loud and clear for her. And besides, it's his apartment, his responsibility. But still, this dust was appalling, and it kept her occupied for a bit.

"Alright, all done. Let's go," Antonio said, interrupting her before she had really started, as he jumped up, grabbing his keys. Faith put down the cloth in a corner and the two headed out the door and down the the ground floor to be greeted by the sight of a red wagon, big enough to pull four children, filled with baby tomato plants. Antonio smiled.

"This is what you used to bring the plants?"

"Yeah, I saw it in this old family photo and then I found it in the back of my parent's place. I kinda am renting it for forever." Antonio tipped his head back and laughed.

"Good one chica. I like it. What are you paying them for it?"

"My mom wants me to stop by twice a month for dinner. I think she's still scared I'm gonna leave the country."

"But you're not." Antonio said, as he began pulling the wagon, keeping his eyes straight ahead so Faith couldn't see the brief look of worry that crossed his face.

"I got a couple things keeping me here," Faith said, with a smile. "Plus it helps that I'm employed at the best restaurant in town."

"You know that probably does help. I wasn't thinking of that though. I thought it was your stunning new boyfriend." She linked hands with Antonio at that.

"That might have played a role as well."

"Thanks for picking up the plants for me."

"No problem. Don't forget to pay me back though."

"Yeah, I'll work it out with dad on our way out."

Last year had been devastating for Carriedo Restaurante. Several weekly shipments of tomatoes had come in moldy and rotten. Antonio's father had to scramble to line up replacement shipments, costing the restaurant a hefty chunk of money and almost costing them several customers. So rather than having to rely on anyone else for tomatoes again, Antonio suggested that they grow their own on the roof of the restaurant, and put the space to good use.

Antonio's father was so enchanted with the idea, that he agreed right away, and then promptly delegated the task to Antonio. Knowing he would never be able to do it all by himself, he got Faith and a few others employees at the restaurant to help. They started the project a couple weeks ago, when they built a greenhouse so that they would grow through the winter and then planted the first crop. Today the two were headed there to plant the second half of the tomatoes by themselves, as everyone else was either otherwise occupied or got scheduled to work at the restaurant.

Upon their arrival at the restaurant, Antonio led the way through the back of the restaurant and up the steps in the back to the roof. Faith had to get behind and push the wagon up the steps while Antonio pulled, and after a great struggle, they were able to get it to the roof. The two pulled out their gardening tools from the shed and walked over to inspect their previous work. Antonio was fairly jumping up and down as he looked at the tomatoes. While he stopped short at cooing at each individual one for how much it had grown, the smile on his face said it all. Faith sighed at his antics, but couldn't stop the wry smile creeping up on her face.

"I love you, you know that right?"

"Te amo también querida," he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead, his hand wrapping around her arm, holding her tight. Even as he pulled away, his hand trailed down her bare arm, and despite the warm spring air, Faith could feel goosebumps rising up on her skin as his and her fingers interlocked. They looked at each other for a moment, quiet smiles on their faces while a soft breeze blew through

"Aww, you guys are so cute, I should take a picture" a voice came from out of no where. Around the corner came Laura and her brother Tim. Antonio and Faith blushed and resisted the urge to pull apart. They hadn't been together long, but they were both past the awkward stage of worry that any little thing could bring this crashing down around them. They were comfortable together, but Laura had the tendency to swoon over everything they did, making what would ordinarily be a casually sweet moment seem like the greatest thing that has ever happened.

"Hey Laura, Tim." Tim grunted in acknowledgement, while Laura gave a not-so-mysterious half smile.

"Well then Antonio, your dad said it was slow downstairs, so he wanted us to come up to help until the dinner rush. So what do you want us to do boss?" Antonio recovered from his flustered state and began to direct them to begin preparing the raised beds for the tomatoes by softening the dirt and digging holes. As the hours passed, the four began to make progress, and by the time the sun was setting and the siblings had returned back downstairs, all the tomatoes were planted in the ground.

Stretching from where she was kneeling on the ground, Fatih gave a yawn.

"Hey, do you think we are done? I'm exhausted and I can't really see anything anymore." Antonio jumped up and walked over to her side, offering a hand to help her up. He pulled so hard that Faith jumped up from the ground. Smiling as he placed his arm around her back, Faith leaned her head on his shoulder and the pair surveyed their hard work.

"We did it." He said with pride. "We have planted tomatoes." Just then the first stars of the night came out, twinkling down on the pair. Faith took them in along with the tomatoes and sighed at this perfect picture of their creation. She leaned up and kissed Antonio on the jaw.

"Yes we have sweetheart. Yes we have."

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><p><strong>AN: Hey guys. So here is chapter three. I tried to add some more fluff and I fixed some errors from what was on my previous chapters. I haven't heard anything from you guys about it, so I was kinda hoping someone could review and give me some feedback. Am I not incorporating the words enough? Too little fluff? Too much? Please tell me something, even a favorite or a follow would mean a lot. Even if you don't like it, tell me what I'm doing wrong. I hope I didn't scare you guys off with the first chapter, I just was outlining what this was going to look like and it might have come across a little harsh.**

**Here is our first glimpse of other characters. For sure the Italian Brothers and the rest of the BTT will appear in the rest of the story, but I'm going to include other characters as well, I just haven't decided who, and plus I can't spoil the rest of the story!**

**Te Amo Amigos de Internet!**


	4. A Gift for You

El Anillo: The Ring

La Puerta: The Door

Azul: Blue

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><p>Antonio and Faith weaved their way through the other shoppers in the outdoor market, both burdened with shopping bags of various sizes and weights. With their respective food supplies running low, and their wedding less than a month away, they had decided to head out on a joint shopping venture with Antonio promising to treat Faith to lunch after they were all done.<p>

The two had almost finished getting everything on their lists when Antonio spotted a bargain jewelry store behind the grocer's stand.

"Can we go in here? I need to check and see if they have any gold hoops."

"Yeah sure." The two crossed several people before reaching the door of their destination. Right away Antonio walked over to the back of the store where the earrings were while Faith wandered around the store.

The story behind Antonio's ear piercings was rather bittersweet. His best friend from high school was a kid from England named Arthur Kirkland. The guy was a bit of a punk and always made sure to include a less-than-innocent Antonio into his schemes. Winter of their last year of school, the two decided to get their ears pierced. Arthur got a purple cartilage ring that hurt like the devil while Antonio got a square diamond stud. While they got more than enough questioning stares and disapproval from both their parents, the two liked them so much that they returned to that store after graduation and Antonio got his other lobe pierced while Arthur got a tongue ring. Unfortunately, it was the last thing the two did together. Arthur's parents promptly grounded him, despite his age, and then they moved back to England before the two could hang out again. Last he had heard, Arthur was pursuing his career as a musician while Antonio stayed behind to work in his father's place and take cooking classes. But even as their friendship died, those piercings became its legacy.

Nowadays, Antonio tries not to wear any noticeable earrings too often, as his parents still do not like to see them. He always has small black studs in though, to keep the holes from closing up. But he would wear his more fancier pairs sometimes for date night with Faith, and he wanted to find a pair to wear at the wedding, with or without parental approval. For Faith's part, she did have to say, he looked like a dashing pirate every time he wore them.

Faith turned her attention to a display of rings, her weakness. While some girls couldn't walk out of a store without buying shoes or clothes, for Faith, she couldn't leave without buying a ring. A salesperson had left the door open for the glass box that contained them, allowing for shoppers to reach in and to try on rings. She scanned the rows, looking for one to catch her eyes. There it was, all the way in the back corner, was the one.

It was beautiful. The huge black rose petals reflected the store lights shining down on it, creating patches of green and blue on the otherwise solid dark charcoal. Underneath the petals were three golden leaves, the same color as the band, with little diamond-like stones along the edges of each leaf. It only cost 2.65 euros; it was nothing more than a cheap bauble. But yet it was one of the most beautiful rings she had ever laid eyes on. (The spot for the most beautiful would have to go to her engagement and wedding rings-and they were truly beautiful.)

She had spent the remainder of her extra money already though, on something she really didn't need. It was a bright blue, floor-length, one-shoulder dress, so blue it was sapphire, and the gown gave a slight shimmer when she walked. It wasn't like she meant to go dress shopping; they had passed by it, placed practically outside the front door of the shop to lure in window shoppers like herself, and she had to try it on.

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><p>When Faith walked out of the dressing room, the look on her fiance's face as he looked up from his phone said it all. Mixed emotions of awe and a hunger played out across his lightly tanned face. His green eyes darkened and a barely concealed smirk worked its way up onto his face.<p>

It was that look in his eyes that sealed the deal for Faith. It turned her insides into jelly. Not from fear, but from excitement. She knew Antonio loved her, that was no question. She tried her best to not repeatedly ask for any validation of his love, because the evidence was all around her. There was no point in getting worried over something that obviously wasn't a problem. But that look from her fiance conveyed that he wanted her. That she was desired. And she didn't want to let go of that feeling.

"How do I look?"

"Very sexy." She squirmed slightly in the dress, a blush beginning to cover her cheeks.

"Ok. I'm gonna go change now. I'll meet you outside."

"Ok," he replied, standing up and giving her a kiss on the lips.

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><p>Faith gave a small smile. That moment makes it worth it that she couldn't buy the ring. She placed the ring on her long fingers, checking to see if it would look alright on them. She toyed with it for a while before finally putting it down again with a long sigh and a twist of the lips in goodbye.<p>

"Antonio, you almost done?" she called to him

"A few more minutes."

"Ok. I'm gonna wait outside at the bench."

"Ok, meet you out there." Faith headed out of the door, saying goodbye to the cashier as she went out. She waited at the park bench for longer than she expected, but was finally greeted with the sight of her fiance.

"What took you so long?"

"I had a hard time picking out what I wanted," Antonio mumbled, feeling the bag grow heavy in his hand. He was never good at lying, or even omitting facts.

"Ok then. Let's go get something to eat!" Antonio exhaled with relief through his smile as he and his fiance walked and in hand, while the box of earrings rubbed against one of a black rose ring.

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><p><strong>AN: Hello Everyone! **

**Here is some Valentines-ish fluff. Ok, maybe it's not valentines, but it's still fluffy! I hope you guys liked it. Please let me know your thoughts. Also send me three words! It's getting hard to generate these myself!**

**Hey, I'm thinking about doing this with more countries, so I'm going to post a poll on my profile. Vote which country you want to see in the a three words story!**

**Te Amo Amigos de Internet**


	5. Taking Care of You

el sueño-the dream

capaz-capable

olvidar-to forget

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><p>Antonio was awakened from his dreams by the sound of his phone blaring. His ringtone, which was selected out of spite by his cousin Romano, was a song created for the sole purpose of being obnoxious. He had kept it because he thought it was kinda funny, and whenever it played it always made little Roma' smile a little bit. Plus he was too lazy to figure out how to change it back himself.<p>

Now, however, it was not appreciated.

Wincing not just at the obnoxious noise, but at the sour taste in his mouth and the sandpaper state of the back of this throat, Antonio rubbed his eyes open. The headache from before was gone, but otherwise there was no improvement to his condition. With a small groan, he looked at the caller id his phone. The bright lights displayed his girlfriends name. Answering the phone, he laid back into the bed.

"Hey querida," he croaked out.

"Hey, Antonio. Um...the uh movie has already started. Are you still coming or did something come up?" Antonio could feel his stomach sink as he realized what he had done. He rolled over to look at his clock. It was 7:38, twenty-eight minutes after he had promised to be there. It wasn't like him to forget something like that; but after his dad had sent him home early from work, he wasn't really in the mindset to remember any dates.

"Sorry, I haven't been feeling good. I think I'm coming down with something."

"Oh, no problem." He could hear the relief in her voice at his explanation and he felt guilty that he had stood her up. "Hey, I'll come over and make you some dinner ok?"

"I don't want you to get sick," He said, punctuating the end of his sentence with a coughing fit. She waited until he was done before responding.

"It's fine, I've already had my flu shot and everything." He sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"It might not be the flu. And I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"And I am not doubting that. Your sick Antonio. Let me help. I've already been exposed to whatever you have; we've had the same shift at the restarant for the past several days." Antonio sighed again. It didn't sit well with him to be helpless. Faith kept talking though, sensing he had no more arguments. "Alright, I'm headed over, I'll see you in a few," and with that she hung up. Antonio placed the phone down on the ground and sunk into the couch pillow. His throat had gotten worse and he took a minute to give into his feelings of misery. Antonio wasn't one to get sick very often, and he hated it with every fiber in his being.

"Five minutes," he sternly told himself as he closed his eyes. But who was he really kidding, he couldn't help think before he returned to dreamland, he was going to be asleep for longer than that.

Sure enough, it wasn't until a click of the keys at the door, signalling that Faith had finally arrived at the flat, when he finally awoke again. She quickly took off her coat and stuck it over the back of one of his chairs and walked over to the blanketed Antonio, kneeling down in front of his face.

"Hey hun, I'm here. Is there anything you need?" she said, as she pushed back his hair from his face.

"Ugh. Hi Faith. I'm good." Antonio tried to say around the frog in his throat, leaning his warm face into her cool hands.

"Ok, I'm going to go heat up the water for some tea, and then I'll reheat the soup."

"What kind?" Internally he winced at how weak he sounded. Faith, though, smiled at his question.

"Your favorite silly. The garlic and onion one, and before you ask, yes I got the toast separately so it's not soggy. But while those things are heating up, we should take your temperature." Faith went to the kitchen to set up the food and then headed to the bathroom to get the thermometer and returned. Antonio tried to take the thermometer from her, but she held it away from him.

"C'mon Faith."

"Antonio, I know you can do all of this by yourself. But I'm here to take care of you. So just let me do my job and open your mouth," she said sternly. Without another word, Antonio opened his mouth.

It wasn't like he wasn't used to being taken care of. He had never forgotten all the times his mother stayed home from the restaurant to be with him when he was sick as a child. It was just, for too long, Antonio had been the one that everyone would turn to when they were hurting. He always worked to be the happy one, to not have any problems so that no one would really have to worry about him too much.

Antonio isn't really mushy about it. It's just the way things are; it's a part of his personality. But still, he can't stop a smile working its way onto his face. It's been a while since he's met a person who could just brush aside his protests so easily. The last people to do that were his college buddies, who tended to just brush his arguments off with a shove to the couch and then they would proceed to kill him at whatever video game they were obsessed with at the time. "No pity for the weak," Gil would often say, while elbowing him in the ribs, laughing loudly.

That was just how things were. And that was ok.

The thermometer beeped, and Faith took it out of his mouth. Her forehead wrinkled a little bit as she read the numbers. "37.7. Not really high, but still, you have a fever." She hopped up, bustling around. Antonio, with nothing to do, began contemplating the state of his ceiling for a while (he really did need to dust: there were so many cobwebs at the corners, his flat was practically spider heaven) until Faith returned, burdened with a full tray. "Hey Antonio, it's ready." Faith helped him sit up and handed him a bowl of the steaming soup, with the glorious cheese toast floating on top. He looked at her with a small smirk. "What?"

"You were so insistent on me not doing anything, I'm surprised you're not feeding me."

"You're on your own there mister. A girl can only do so much." Settling into the edge of the sofa, she dug into her soup along with him.

By the time he had finished the bowl of soup, Antonio was beginning to feel a little bit more like himself and the fire in the back of his throat was calming down. Faith put the bowls up and cleaned up the kitchen. Upon her return, Antonio held out his arms.

"Stay for a little bit longer?" Faith looked at the clock and chewed on her bottom lip.

"Just for a little bit." The two snuggled together, with Antonio's head in Faith's lap. Carefully, Faith combed her fingers through his dark auburn locks. The two talked for a while about their day and other things going on. But when Antonio could no longer hold his eyes open, Faith carefully eased herself out from underneath his head and went to grab some blankets off of his bed, filling a glass with water for him on the way back. After covering Antonio in yet another blanket, she placed the glass of water within his reach on the floor and kissed his forehead.

"Sleep is good when you are sick. Sweet dreams hun." And with a small smile, Antonio plunged into dreamland.

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><p><strong>AN: First of all, I want to give a shout out to Nosuri for the follow and the favorite ;) You are awesome! I was getting seriously discouraged on this fic, because no one had said anything about it. I'm feeling a little bit better now.**

**Incase you were wondering, the soup I was referring to is a regional Spanish soup called Sopa Tostada de Castilla-La Mancha. It's like a broth soup with onions and grilled cheese on top. **

**I still have the poll up on my profile. If you guys like this story and want to see more with other characters drop by my profile and vote!**

**This chapter took a while for me to like; I was going to scrap it at first and write a different onethen I got a late-night inspiration and I decided to keep going with it. It turned out better than I thought it was going to. **

**Good news: Next chapter will give some more background on Faith. I won't tell you much more because I don't want to spoil it.**

**Te Amo Amigos de Internet!**


	6. The First Time Kissing You

la nube-cloud

la perspectiva-perspective

inventar-to invent

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><p>It was 10:30 pm and the restaurant was in full swing. It was tapas time, and a lot of people were gathered together in groups with plates of the various fancy snacks before them, talking and laughing. Antonio was in his element, going for table to table, checking up on customers, giving the waitstaff tips, and checking in on the cooks. His father had left early and the restaurant was his ship to command, and for once it was going smoothly.<p>

He finished tasting some of the food from the back and headed back out to the dining room to see if any new patrons had come in. Scanning the expansive room, he saw a girl at a table by herself that was not there before. She looked blankly out into the restaurant, hands in her lap, probably waiting for her food. He headed over there, confidence in his stride.

"Hello, I'm Antonio, how are you doing today miss...?" He held out a hand to her.

"Faith. I'm doing alright thanks." She shook hands with him, her hand cool to his warm ones. For some reason, her name sounded familiar.

"That's not a name you hear often in these parts. Are you from England, Faith?"

"No, I was born in the United States, but mom married a Spanish man, so I have lived here most of my life," she explained

"Well Faith, welcome to Carriedo Restaurante. Has someone taken your order? Is there anything I can get for you?" He paused for breath, realizing that he probably just overwhelmed her.

"Someone's taken my order, thanks. Can I just get a glass of water?"

"Certainly, no problem. Are you waiting for anyone, I can get them some water as well?" She glanced at her phone and she lost her smile.

"No, it's just me." Antonio felt a little bad for making her feel sad and gave her a big smile.

"Well, I'll be right back with your water." Walking away, he couldn't shake the feeling that she was familiar, that girl at table five. He knew her from somewhere, but for the life of him he could not remember where.

He could sit with her; maybe he would remember who she was then. It looked like she was going to meet someone but they didn't show. He checked on everyone briefly as he poured her water. Everything was going fine. And if anything bad happened someone would come and get him right? He could always leave her then.

Odds are though she wouldn't even want him to sit with her; they were perfect strangers after all. But still, there was that gut feeling to just go talk to her. At the very worst, if she said no, he could always go hide in the back until she left and laugh it off.

"Order up for table five!"

Before he could stop himself, Antonio found himself speaking, "I'll take it out." He grabbed the hot plate right out of the chefs hand and walked out of the kitchen, ignoring the looks the staff was giving him. Steeling himself, he walked back to the table.

"Here is your water," he placed it down on the coaster in front of her, "and here is your meal."

"Oh, thank you so much!" She smiled at him, a real genuine smile rather than the typical polite one he often saw on other patrons.

Well, it's now or never.

"Would you mind if I join you? It's more fun to eat with someone than to eat alone." Antonio searched her face and waited with bated breath. She gave another smile, with relief mixed in this time.

"Yeah, you can join me." Antonio exhaled, a matching smile working its way onto his face.

"Ok, I'll be right back, let me get my plate." All the restaurant workers had daily meals made for them that they could eat if they ever got hungry during their breaks. Antonio had been saving his for when things had died down at the restaurant, but it had been a busy day and he hadn't had a chance to eat his dinner yet.

Upon his return, he carefully slid into the seat next to her and searched for a topic that would beat back the awkwardness. To his relief, she spoke first.

"You look so familiar, you remind me of someone I met once, but I can't remember who it was."

"You know, I was thinking the same thing about you."

"It's probably just dejavu or something."

"Probably." They stopped talking for a minute and started to eat. Antonio scooped up some paella; usually he wouldn't eat such a heavy meal right before bed, but hey, you take what you can get. "So I'm guessing you work here."

"Yeah, my dad is in charge of the restaurant; I'm training under him to take over it when he retires."

"Father-son business huh? Not very common nowadays."

"Yeah, I've raised a couple of eyebrows. How about you?"

"I'm kinda in-between things. I'm staying with a friend, but if I can't get a job here I'm going to work as an au pair in Germany." Then as a joking afterthought, she asked with a laugh, "Are you guys hiring?"

"I might be able to invent up a position that we need. We could always use more waitresses,"

"Well then, invent away Antonio." There it was, that contagious smile of hers. Antonio was beginning to find out that he was looking for more ways to bring that smile to her face. And when she said his name, he had never felt so happy to hear someone say it.

The two kept talking until all of the patrons had left and it was past closing time. A lot of the wait staff and cooks had left too, and only those in charge of cleanup for the day were left. Faith looked out the window into the darkness and then turned back to Antonio.

"Hey, do you happen to know when the bus is coming?"

"The last one leaves around 11:30." She glanced down at her phone.

"Dang it, I didn't realize it had gotten so late, it's already almost 12:30." She looked worriedly out into the cloudy night. He smiled, remembering something from a year ago where he ran into someone at a bus stop.

That's when he realized why she looked so familiar.

"Wait, you're that girl from the bus stop!" Her eyes widened as she recognized him as well.

"Yep that's me! You're the guy with the soap in his hair!" Now that he knew who she was, Antonio remembered the feeling he had when he had walked away from her that day. It was like what he was feeling now, only now it had increased even more as he had got to know her.

It hit him, like lightning, that he did not want her to walk out of his life again like she did that day.

"How close do you live to here?"

"It's a good walk, but I can manage. It's just late, and I just moved to the city..." she trailed off, embarrassed. Antonio could sense that she was nervous to walk by herself.

"If you don't mind waiting until we finish closing up, I can walk you home."

"You don't have to go out of your way for me."

"I live a couple blocks down from the restaurant. I could use the walk anyway."

"Are you sure? I'm sure I'll be fine."

"C'mon, I'm walking you home."

"Thank you," she said in relief. Antonio too sighed in relief. Perspectives have changed on being a gentleman. The last time he offered to walk a girl home, he got yelled at and was called a pedophile. Of course, the girl didn't know the meaning of the word pedophile when she called him that, because if he was being a pedophile she would have to be at most eleven years old, but it still stung.

"I'll help clean up," she offered. The two got up from the table and worked together to clean off the remaining tables. When they were done, Tim, on cleanup duty, called out from the back, "Hey, the last of us are leaving. We are done back here."

"Ok Tim, you guys are good to go. We'll lock up.

"New employee? Really Antonio, we aren't desperate enough to be asking customers to clean up for us."

"I'm walking her home."

"Whatever you say boss. Just don't get lost."

The two headed out into the night when they had finished at the restaurant, still talking. While they walked, Faith kept accidentally brushing the back of her hand against Antonio's, as if she kept grabbing for it but then restrained herself. Finally she shoved her hand into her pocket. Antonio, realizing what was going on, reached into her pocket and grabbed her hand. She looked up at him with a small smile, and some unidentifiable emotion shining in her eyes. They continued down the street until they reached her flat building.

"Well, this is it."

"Well Faith, it was nice to meet you again."

"It was nice to see you again too Antonio." Whipping out his phone, Antonio made a new contact.

"Can I have your number so we can get in touch again?"

"Yeah, sure." She quickly gave him the numbers, yawning when it was all done. "I'd better go in and go to bed."

"Ok." Antonio leaned down to give her a small kiss on her cheek, not quite sure if it was the right move, but knowing at the same time that this was what he wanted. At the same time he leaned down though, she turned her face towards to him and he kissed her on the lips. Faith pulled back, a little startled, and then smiled.

"Thanks Antonio." And with that she was gone.

On his way home, Antonio pulled out his phone and texted a simple "Goodnight" to her.

And felt his heart flip in his chest when she replied back in kind.

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><p><strong>AN: This is my longest chapter ever at over 1600 words! Please Review, I've been working really hard on this story and would really appreciate the feedback.**

**Te amo mis amigos de Internet!**


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